The Shadow Knows

Experience design approach brings hard cash for local firm

My personal highlight at my recent Frankenpower talk was encountering a local firm who is well on the road to "getting" experience design. Yes, even in Franconia - reputedly the "stuffiest" part of "stuffy" Germany - someone's making money from offering his customers a fun (yet utterly professional) experience.

Rainer Hoffman Sonnenschutzsysteme make and install sunshades. But their advertising, business cards and even their oldtimer truck are in the film noir style of Mike Hammer or the Maltese Falcon. Why? Because like those 40's gumshoes, they are proud to be in the business of "shadowing people".

"The shadowy detective image is a gag", tells me a smiling Hoffman, "but it's increased our business by a quarter!"

Of all the sunshade firms in all the towns in all the world, you have to walk into this one.